Roger Coleman, publisher of the Register-Star, died unexpectedly today. The shocking news was first reported by Sam Pratt on his blog: "A death in the community." It has since been confirmed in the Register-Star: "HCN publisher dead at 61."
It is with this sad news, and with sincere sympathy to Roger Coleman's family, friends, and colleagues, that Gossips ends 2012.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Suffragists Meet with Sulzer
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| Governor and Mrs. William Sulzer arriving in Albany |
SULZER TO AID SUFFRAGISTS
Promises Local Support and Favors Cause in Message.
ALBANY, Dec. 31--Gov. Sulzer cordially received the suffragette pilgrims at the Executive Mansion this afternoon, and after accepting their message told them that he would give his support to their cause.
"I welcomed them with open arms," said Gov. Sulzer after the reception, "and promised them my support and loyalty. I have recommended in my message legislation in favor of the suffrage amendment. Some twenty or more years ago I introduced a bill in the Legislature granting suffrage to women and it went through both houses. It was, however, vetoed by the Governor."
Gen. Rosalie Jones and Major Ida Craft were at the Executive Mansion shortly after the Governor arrived. They lost no time in tendering him the parchment which bore the following message:
"Suffrage hosts of the Empire State send greetings and renewed congratulations to William Sulzer and express the earnest hope that his administration may be distinguished by the speedy passage of the woman's suffrage amendment."
On back of the parchment, which had been set in a mission wood frame was inscribed this explanation.
"Votes for women pilgrims carried this message on foot from New York to Albany, having left Monday, December 16, in order to greet the Governor-elect upon his arrival at the Capitol."
The message is signed by Harriett May Mills, Katherine Ely Tiffany, Nora Blatch De Forrest, Mary Garrett Hay, Helen Mansfield and James Lees Laidlaw.
The Governor and the suffragettes posed in front of the mansion for their photographs after the interchange of greetings, the governor holding the framed message in front of him when the picture was taken.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Update on the Gang of Four
Adam Shanks is reporting for Columbia Paper.
The Army in Albany: Another Perspective
The article in the Eagle reports on the same plans and strategies for delivering their message to Governor Sulzer but makes only passing reference to Bishop Doane's denunciation when it reports that "Colonel Ida Craft of Brooklyn was considerably nettled today over the statement made by Bishop Doane of Albany, one of the most prominent Episcopal divines in the country, who declared that the hiking suffragettes were a band of silly women." Of particular interest is this message from the pilgrims to their supporters in Brooklyn which introduces the Eagle article.
PILGRIMS GREET BROOKLYN FOLLOWERS THROUGH THE EAGLE
Headquarters of the Suffragist Pilgrims,
Albany, N. Y., Dec. 30.
To our Brooklyn suffragists and friends--Heartiest greeting and the happiest New Year in the history of woman suffrage, from the Albany pilgrims.
To the Brooklyn Eagle--A Happy New Year and many thanks for its constant interest in our work, and especially for its splendid treatment of this pilgrimage.
We take this opportunity, through the courtesy of The Eagle, to assure our Brooklyn friends that New Year greetings is not a hollow, meaningless phrase. The prospects for suffrage are better than ever before. This trip through the country has given us an insight into the state of suffrage sentiment in the up-state districts which has been a constant delight. Everywhere we found interest, just waiting to be crystalized into real suffrage enthusiasm. The people came to their doors and open windows to wish us Godspeed.
There was little ridicule and no open hostility. Of course, we cannot say that everybody we saw was a believer in women's cause, but the attitude even of the anti-suffragists is best explained by incidents such as this.
It was the day we walked from Peekskill to Fishkill, 22 miles, through six inch mud, with a cold rain beating in our faces. In the muddiest corner of a country road we met two men, evidently residents of the nearby farms. They gave us cheery greetings and as they passed we heard one say, "Gee whiz, Bill, they're doin' more for their cause than we men would."
On this trip hundreds of people have heard the votes for women gospel whom we never could have reached through ordinary meetings. We distributed thousands of rainbow leaflets at farm house doors, and made immediate speeches at cross roads gatherings.
New York State cannot be carried for woman suffrage in 1915 without the upstate vote, and this is the method of reaching the country voters. Every section of the state will have to be canvassed in similar pilgrimages. We have only three years to do it. Awake, sisters, and help us. It won't do to sit back and say, "Yes, I think women ought to vote." We must pack up our knapsacks and say, "We've got to get it."
Wishing you all could have had the inspiration of this pilgrimage, we are yours for the cause.
ROSALIE GARDNER JONES, Huntington.
IDA CRAFT, Brooklyn.
On December 30, 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle also reported this story about an unexpected and happy consequence for one of the suffragists, Lieutenant-Colonel Jessie Hardy Stubbs.
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| Left to right: Rosalie Jones, Jessie Hardy Stubbs, Ida Craft |
MRS. STUBBS GETS SOME JOYFUL NEWS
Suffrage Marcher Finds Father From Whom She'd Not Heard in Years
RESULT OF ALBANY MARCH.
Major Hardy Located His Daughter by Means of Newspaper Stories of the "Hike."
Albany, December 30--Mrs. Jessie Hardy Stubbs, one of the most prominent organizers in the New York State Woman's Suffrage Association, today received a letter at the Hampton Hotel from her father, Major A. L. Hardy, whom she hasn't seen or heard from since she was 8 years old. Mrs. Stubbs, who has been with the pilgrim army on and off since it started out from New York, collapsed from sheer joy today when she received a long-looked for word of some kind from her father, who is living in Pittsburgh, and who located his daughter's whereabouts through the newspapers.
Major Hardy was one of the most prominent newspaper editors in Central Illinois when trouble arose between him and his wife in Chicago, twenty-five years ago. They separated, and Mrs. Hardy took her daughter and came East, and from the day they parted neither has heard a single word from the Major, who dropped out of sight as if swallowed up by the earth. He was graduated from the Peekskill Military Academy, and when a youth entered and fought all through the Civil War. Inclosed [sic] in a brief letter, which Mrs. Stubbs received in the first mail this morning, reading: "I am proud of the position you have acquired. Hope to hear from you soon," was a newspaper clipping saying he was formerly histographer of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg [sic].
There was also a clipping showing that he had written several books, among them "Pertaining to Pittsburg" and "The Story of Pittsburg." Mrs. Stubbs was too upset to-day to talk about the long separation, but she declared that she would immediately go into communication with her father, whom she hasn't seen in twenty-five years.
"No matter what fruit the pilgrimage may bear," she said, "it has done one thing that fills my heart with joy today--it has restored my father to me, and that is the greatest gift that heaven could bestow upon me."
Snow Removal Tonight
DPW superintendent Rob Perry has informed Gossips that snow removal will take place after midnight tonight. Cars that are parked overnight where they are not supposed to be will be towed to clear the path for the snow removal equipment. There is no parking on either side of Warren Street. On other east-west streets, cars should be parked on the odd side of the street. For other streets, consult the list below (click to enlarge it) or simply look for the "No Parking" signs which are expected to appear later today.
General Jones's Army in Albany
The following article, accompanied by the montage of photographs, appeared a hundred years ago today, on the morning of December 30, 1912, in the New York Press.
SUFFRAGE "ARMY" IS DENOUNCED BY BISHOP OF ALBANY
Father of Anti-Suffrage Speaker Says They Are "Silly Women."
GEN. JONES TRYING TO PREVENT FIGHTS
Marchers Divided by Strife, but Await Chance to Give Message to Sulzer.
ALBANY, Dec. 29--General Rosalie Jones, leader of the "army" of marching suffragists that yesterday arrived in Albany, after hiking all the way from New York, is doing her best to-night to preserve peace in the ranks of her "army" until after their message is delivered to Governor-elect Sulzer to-morrow afternoon.
It has been a day in which the strained relations existing between some of the hikers have been so evident that a watchful eye has been kept to prevent the hair-pulling stage from being reached. It was with a sigh of relief that General Jones spoke of disbanding the "army" to-morrow. No other comment was needed as to her private opinion of the squabbling that has cast gloom over all since the arrival in this city than her reply when asked if she would go to the inaugural ball.
"After we disband to-morrow," she said, "I will not be General Jones, but Miss Jones. As Miss Jones, I shall attend the ball with my cousin, James Duane Livingston."
And, as if there were not trouble enough with the doubt of the attitude of the Governor toward the pilgrim "army" and the talk of dissension that has kept groups apart from groups all day, watchfully eyeing each other and discussing what each other may be saying, the final blow was given to-night when they were told what William Croswell Doane, Diocesan Bishop of Albany, had said about them.
There are a dozen or more excited conferences going on in the hotel parlors and writing rooms, the parties being augmented momentarily by equally excited Albany suffragettes, who are rushing in after hearing the news, to join in the expressions of sympathy, condolence and general condemnation of the Bishop's attitude and opinions.
Bishop Attacks Women.
This is what the Bishop had to say this afternoon when seen in his home in Elk street:
"I have no faith in the cause of the suffragists. The women are not as ill-behaved as their sisters in England, but they are directed by the same impulses. Suffragism as we have come to know it in New York State differs from the suffragism of England as comparative differs from superlative. The suffragists who made the pilgrimage from New York to Albany are a band of silly, excited and exaggerated women. Their sole aim in making this pilgrimage, as they are wont to call it, was the attraction of attention. This demonstration will not help their cause."
General Jones was having troubles of her own when this was repeated to her in the suffrage tea given in her honor this afternoon by Mrs. Helen Hoy Greeley of New York and her sister, Elizabeth Raebquin Hoy, in the home of their father, No. 584 Western avenue. There were things of more vital interest at the moment demanding all her diplomacy. She prevented more than one serious verbal clash when challenge was ostensibly given her by one of her officers who insisted on differing with every word she said by quietly asking her not to be serious at a social affair. She stopped long enough, however, to say:
"I'm a good Episcopalian, but I think the Bishop has been misguided. His own daughter, Margaret Doane Gardner, the famous anti-suffragist, goes all over the country making speeches. If we are making a display of ourselves she is doing the same by continual speaking against the cause we represent."
General Jones received a telegram from her mother this afternoon, rejoicing in the fact that the journey is safely over. The leader had but one regret. "She did not even wish our cause success," she mourned.
Plan to Trap Sulzer.
Elaborate military plans have been made for to-morrow for presenting the all-important message. The entire army has been asked to meet in the Hampton Hotel just before the arrival of the Governor. Two pilgrims will be delegated to be at the station. They will not speak to the Governor or annoy him in any way, but will follow along silently wherever he goes to see where to send emissaries.
Reservations have been made for Sulzer in the Ten Eyck, but it is possible he may accept the invitation of Lieutenant Governor-elect Martin Glynn to stay in his Willitt avenue home. When his abode is discovered, the pilgrims will return to the hotel and report. The Chief Aid Gladys Coursen, attended by two more pilgrims, will go forth with a letter for the Governor, asking him to receive their general and their message some time during the day.
The pilgrims will stand at attention outside the doorway while Aid Coursen delivers her letter. Should she have to wait more than two hours before being received the waiting pilgrims will be relieved. Guards will thereafter be changed each two hours.
General Rosalie Jones, still in command of her own army, will present the message. She will not ask for an answer, and will wish the Governor a Happy New Year and tell him that the message has been sent by her sisters in New York City.
Immediately after the army will disband. There will be more than the General who will be glad to end the intimacy that has been forced on them in the journey of the past two weeks, it is rumored.
Sibyl Wilbur, a pilgrim and the official biographer of Mary Baker G. Eddy, was given a big reception after the service in the First Church of Christ Scientist, which she attended this morning. She was forced by enthusiastic admirers to make a speech, telling of some of her experiences on the hike.
"I had no blisters on the trip," she said, "and I took no medicine. I experienced little fatigue, and what there was was all over after one night of natural sleep. Suffrage is a part of Christian Science, for Mrs. Eddy herself was the first to say 'Our father-mother-God.'"
Saturday, December 29, 2012
What Happens to Our Recyclables?
Gossips checked with DPW Superintendent Rob Perry, and here's the answer. We don't have to separate glass, metal, plastic, and paper anymore because, since August, Columbia County has been transporting recyclables directly to a "single stream" facility which separates glass, metal, plastic, and paper for us. This makes several things possible. Residents can put all their recycling into the same bin. DPW can pick up the recycling with the garbage truck, which has a greater capacity than the recycling truck. Collecting recyclables can be done in half the time. So starting next week--at the beginning of the new year--the recycling for the entire city will be picked up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, those of us accustomed to separating recyclables need to have faith that down the line there's an automated process doing the separating for us.
The Army Enters Albany
This account appeared in the Syracuse Herald one hundred years ago today, on December 29, 1912.
Little Band of Pilgrims Arrive Two Days Ahead of Their Schedule.
Little Band of Pilgrims Arrive Two Days Ahead of Their Schedule.
FIVE LEFT IN THE PARTY
General Jones to Present Message to Governor-elect Sulzer Next Week.
Albany, Dec. 29—Tired and footsore, but still enthusiastic and glorying in the fact that they reached their destination two days ahead of the schedule, the little band of suffragette pilgrims who walked 174 miles from New York to present a message to Governor-elect Sulver advocating votes for women, arrived in Albany shortly after 4 o'clock this afternoon.
The 174 miles, which "Gen" Rosalie Jones said was the record shown by the official registers, although railroad maps show some twenty-five miles less, were covered in twelve days of walking, an average of fourteen and a half miles a day.
Of the six "pilgrims" who started from New York on the morning of December 16th, five, Miss Jones, "Surgeon General" Livinia [sic] Dock, "Colonel" Ida Craft, "Corporal" M. N. Stubbs and Private Sibyl Wilbur, completed the long hike. Mrs. Inez Craven, who was one of the sextette to make the start, dropped out en route.
Contents Still Secret.
The "message," the contents of which will not be known until Governor-elect Sulzer reads it, will be placed in his hands by "General" Jones at his convenience as soon after his arrival as possible Miss Jones said. The Governor-elect is expected here Monday.
All of the marchers reported none the worse for their long trip, with the exception of "Surgeon" Dock. She is suffering slightly from rheumatism and limped noticeably.
"I should like to have everybody form a New Year's resolution that they shall at least consider seriously the proposition of votes for women, if they are not at the present time absolutely in favor of it," said "General" Jones to-night. "We feel that we have touched the people along the line of march in a way that could have been effective by no other method. We feel that the people realize that this is no idle notion. The pilgrimage has always stood for the highest ideals of the cause it represents, and we are sure from the receptions we have been accorded that our march has not been in vain."
Escorted into Albany.
To-day's journey was from Niverville, a distance of 18 miles. A score of local workers for the cause, headed by Miss Elizabeth M. Smith, president of the Albany Equal Suffrage club, met the marchers at East Greenbush shortly after noon and escorted them to Albany. There was no brass band, the only real demonstration in the musical line being "Everybody's Doing It" from a bugle, behind closed doors in a house on the outskirts of Rensselaer.
The marchers were met at the bridge over the Hudson leading into Albany by two policemen and Dr. C. M. Culver, a local suffragist, who prides himself upon the fact that he has been "for the cause" since 1867, and who incidentally paid the toll for all in the band.
When the pilgrims reached the city it was decided to have a short parade up to the Capitol and down State street to the hotel where they will make their headquarters in the city. There was no demonstration during the march, although there was a bit of grumbling "in the ranks" at the extra tramp up Albany's steepest hill.
Arriving at the hotel, "General" Jones made a brief speech, thanking all friends and sympathizers. All the marchers were besieged by admiring friends and congratulated upon the successful conclusion of the journey.
For every good effort, there are always detractors, as this article, which appeared in the New York Sun on the same day, gives evidence.
"GEN." DE FOREST BEATS "GEN." JONES IN SEEING SULZER
Asks Governor-elect to Tell His Views on Suffrage Question.
WASHINGTON HIKE IS NOT APPROVED
Women Believe Most of Work for Cause Must Be Done in This City.
"A picturesque thing to do, and splendid to stir up sentiment," is the characterization of General Rosalie Jones's Albany hike, by Nora Blatch De Forest, who stayed in New York and beat the Jones army in reaching Governor-elect Sulzer.
"I think Rosalie Jones's message is one of greeting more than anything else," continued Mrs. De Forest. "I felt we should speak to the Governor-elect before he finished his message. That meant to reach him before he left New York. So we called on him. He was delightful.
"'You ladies have my assurance that you will be entirely satisfied with the reference to suffrage which you will find in my message,' he said. Of course, no one believes our success rests with Governor Sulzer. He hasn't the power to give us suffrage, but we want his indirect influence."
Suffragists are interested in the move of the De Forest "army," that has taken the edge from the Jones achievement. General Rosalie Jones has led a footsore, weary "army" all the way to Albany to say to Governor-elect Sulzer exactly what General De Forest and her army told him after a fifteen minutes' ride from the headquarters of the Women's Political Union to his office in No. 115 Broadway.
Mrs. De Forest thinks the farmers and people of small villages must have been "tremendously impressed" by Rosalie Jones and her followers.
"I can't see much real use in walking to Washington, if that is a serious plan," she said. "We want to concentrate our efforts on New York State."
Mary Garrett Hay says she is confident New York State women will vote for President of the United States in 1916.
"It isn't necessary to chase to Albany or hound the Governor-elect," she said yesterday. "He sent me a letter a week ago telling me where he stands. I am willing to take his word. No use in chasing after him. You'll never find Mary Hay in anything sensational. I'm too busy doing real work."
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| Nora Blatch Barney in 1921 |
Gossips Note: Nora Blatch De Forest, the daughter of Harriot Eaton Stanton and the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a third generation suffragist. She graduated from Cornell University in 1905 with a degree in civil engineering--the first woman in the United States to earn a degree in any kind of engineering. She married inventor Lee De Forest in 1908, but they separated after only a year owing in large part to De Forest's insistence that Nora give up her profession and become a conventional housewife. They were divorced in 1911. In 1919, she married marine architect Morgan Barney.
In 1912, Mary Garrett Hay was the president of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, and she is credited with bringing the woman's club movement to suffrage. Despite her scorn for "anything sensational," as president of the New York Equal Suffrage League and the New York City Woman Suffrage Party, Hay undoubtedly had a hand in organizing the Suffrage Parade held in New York City on October 23, 1915, which, with 40,000 marchers, can still claim to be the largest parade ever held in New York City.
Hay's prediction that "New York State women will vote for the President of the United States in 1916" did not come true. It wasn't until 1917 that New York women achieved the right to vote in state elections--three years before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified giving women the right to vote in national elections.
Friday, December 28, 2012
More About General Jones's Army
This report about the suffragettes' journey to Albany appeared, a hundred years ago this evening, in the Ithaca Evening News. (Aren't we lucky to be free of all those hybrid gender-specific terms?)
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| General Rosalie Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel Jessie Hardy Stubbs, Colonel Ida Craft |
PILGRIMETTES NEAR END OF THEIR JOURNEY
VALATIE, N.Y., Dec. 28—This was the day for the triumphal entry of Gen. Rosalie Jones and her suffragist army into Albany, where they will present a petition asking for equal rights to Governor Sulzer. The little army, which has hiked all the way from New York, set out from here this morning, planning to reach Albany, eighteen miles distant, during the afternoon, unless detained by bad roads. Scouts reported that the Albany road was in bad condition from floods and rain.
There will be an echo of Biblical history when the party reaches the state capital. "We will do as the army of the people did at Jericho," said General Jones. "We will march around the state capitol several times, just as the ancients marched around the temple in Jericho several times, and we will raise a mighty shout, although ours will be a shout of 'Votes for women.'"
Today the army planned to have luncheon in East Greenbush, three and one-half miles out of Albany. There a delegation of 50 women was to meet them with a brass band to escort them into Albany. It was hoped to make the entrance by daylight. The pilgrims have arranged to make the Hampton House their headquarters in Albany while awaiting the arrival of the governor-elect, for whom they have their message ready.
By road maps, counting detours, they will have walked 169 miles in thirteen days, and their average will be thirteen miles per day. Five pilgrims who have done all the way on foot, from 24th Street, New York, will march into Albany. They are Gen. Rosalie Jones, Col. Ida Craft, Surgeon Lavinia Dock, Pilgrim Katherine Stiles and Pilgrim Sybil Wilbur. They will carry their stores and wear their knapsacks and will not shed their pilgrim garb until they have made their triumphal march into Albany.
The World Is Waiting
The Suffragist Army Marches On
This account of the suffragettes' continuing misadventures in Columbia County appeared in the New York Sun on December 28, 1912.
SUFFRAGE ARMY THROWN OUT OF AUTO INTO MUD
None Hurt, and General Jones Says the Accident
Will Be a Tonic.
THEY'RE NOW AT VALATIE
Marchers Expect to Push Ahead To-day and Enter
Albany This Evening.
ALBANY, Dec. 27--The suffragette army headed by Gen. Rosalie Jones was close to annihilation to-night when an automobile which had been pressed into service to carry the suffragettes to a meeting in a farmhouse skidded and ran down an embankment, throwing the women into the mud.
The accident occurred just north of Valatie, where the suffragettes are spending the night after a hard day plodding through sleet and mud.
The army halted at Pine Bush Inn in Valatie long after nightfall and after a bath and change of clothing resolved to address a suffrage meeting at the home of Joseph Valentine, where a number of men and women had gathered to hear Gen. Jones talk. The Valentine farmhouse is three miles north of Valatie and an automobile was secured.
It was on the return to Pine Bush Inn that the accident happened. None was injured except Gen. Jones, who after declaring that the accident would act as a "tonic" complained of a slightly bruised arm.
After a long wait in the driving rain the suffragettes sighted the lights of an automobile. The car was hailed by Gen. Jones. Two agreeable young men agreed to carry the suffragettes back to Pine Bush Inn.
The army covered almost twenty miles to-day, the last but one of the pilgrimage. In talking of the march Gen. Jones to-night remarked that the customary six or seven miles first covered by the army was a sort of "pink tea stunt."
The anabasis of the suffragettes will [take place tomorrow and was] mapped out to-night in Valatie, with a triumphal march across the Rensselaer Bridge into Albany.
When the suffragettes reach East Greenbush hamlet, several miles south of Albany, to-morrow noon they will be met by a delegation from the Equal Suffrage Club of Albany, of which Mrs. Joseph Gavit is the mainspring. Besides Mrs. Gavit the party from Albany includes the Misses Harriet and Grace Mussell, Miss Caro Arnold of Albany and Miss Mary Fitzgerald of New York.
Gen. Jones will be the guest while in Albany of Mrs. Joseph Gavit.
The suffragettes are now two days ahead of their original schedule. The message which they are bearing will be presented to Gov. Sulzer immediately after his inauguration on January 1.
KINDERHOOK, Dec. 27--With the exception of the day before Christmas when they entered Hudson in a blizzard, this was the most backaching day the marching suffragists have had. The seven of them began splashing north this morning at Stockport, singing the "Pilgrims' Chorus." It had rained all night and the clay road thawed enough to let mud over the women's boot tops.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Right Story, Wrong Site
Never let it be said that Gossips is unwilling to admit a mistake, and a rather significant one was made this morning. The site of these two lost Hudson River Bank buildings was not what is now Thurston Park.
Both buildings stood where this building now stands.
According to the reader who called to correct Gossips' error, after the fire in 1935, Anthony Fabiano, who later built some of the strip malls on Fairview Avenue, purchased the building from the Elks and demolished it. On the site, he built the current building.
Some of the elements of the 1869 bank building were salvaged and used for the new building. The entrance doors are the interior entrance doors from the 1869 building, and the stoop is composed of the brownstone threshold and the plinths that supported the columns that flanked the entrance way.
Some of the elements of the 1869 bank building were salvaged and used for the new building. The entrance doors are the interior entrance doors from the 1869 building, and the stoop is composed of the brownstone threshold and the plinths that supported the columns that flanked the entrance way.
Snow News
Gossips has received word that, snow notwithstanding, recyclables WILL be picked up today, and so far, NO SNOW EMERGENCY has been declared.
Gossips will monitor the situation and let you know if anything changes.
Pilgrims' Progress
SUFFRAGETTES NEAR ALBANY
Reach Stockport Center After a Five-Mile March from Hudson.
Stockport Center, Dec. 27--The suffragist army which is marching to Albany reached here at 1 o'clock yesterday after a quick, easy march of five miles from Hudson.
The greetings received from the townsfolk of Stockport were of rather an explosive and startling character. One enthusiastic citizen, without the least warning, exploded his shotgun within very close range of the marching pilgrims, causing every member of the band to jump in terror.
Surgeon [Lavinia Lloyd] Dock narrowly escaped serious injury from a skyrocket. It took some time for the pilgrims to realize that the shotgun and pyrotechnics were meant as a friendly welcome.
The pilgrims rested last night in a comfortable farmhouse and started early this morning for Valatie, 10 miles away.
Left Stockport This Morning—Gen. Jones to Return to Hudson Next Week.
The suffragists, who stopped over night at Sagendorph's hotel, Stockport Center, left there this morning at 9 o'clock. It was raining hard when they started out, and it later turned to snow. They intended to stop at Kinderhook for their mid-day meal, and then intended to go on as far as they could before night fall. The plan now is to get to Albany by tomorrow night if possible. They don't care to get stuck in any snow banks. There were seven women and three men in the party this morning.
Just before the road gets to Stockport Center, it winds down a hill and over the bridge spanning Kinderhook Creek. Just beyond is the general store. As the army marched across the bridge yesterday two men appeared in front of the store. They set out an old chair as a support to set off a number of rockets. Surgeon Dock was in the road almost opposite the store when one of the men set off a rocket. Instead of ascending, it dived over the back of the chair and went hurling across the road in a shower of sparks. Surgeon Dock was grabbed by her companion just in time. The rocket struck her on the side of her coat, which was flapping out ahead of her, and knocked the staff from her hand.
At Stottville, Mrs. John Plass, Mrs. Frank Palmer, Mrs. B. Keater, and Miss Grace Palmer invited the marchers to rest upon their porch. When they started again the General was sure she had made new recruits. Miss S. E. Tucker, of Albany, and Mrs. W. O. Barker met the party and escorted them into Stockport.
The pilgrims were told last night that they were staying in the hotel where Frank Sangerdorph, the son of the proprietor, is the only bachelor in the village.
Gen. Jones, after the visit to Albany, is to return to Hudson. She will be the guest of Mrs. Morgan Jones and she will organize the suffragettes in this district.
Watch This Spot
In 1869, this building was demolished to make way for a new bank building. On July 21, 1869, the Hudson Evening Register reported: "The building so long occupied by the Hudson River Bank is being demolished to give place to a more magnificent structure. In the meantime the business of the Bank will be transacted at the building No. 89 Warren Street, first door above the Worth House." This is the "more magnificent structure" that took its place.
In the summer of 1935, the Chatham Courier reported a fire at the Elks Lodge: "Damage estimated at $20,000 was caused and one fireman was hurt in an early morning fire of unknown origin which swept two floors of the clubhouse of the Hudson Lodge No. 787, B.P.O.E., at 231 Warren street, Hudson, Sunday morning. . . . Intensity of the fire and the fact that the clubhouse stands in a closely occupied business, residential and hotel district caused Fire Chief [Louis] Sacco to turn in a general alarm shortly after his arrival on the scene. Philip Hickey, night steward at the club, who was in the building at 4:30 a.m. said that, at that time, there was no sign or odor of fire. The alarm struck at 5 a.m."
Gossips research has not yet discovered if the building was ever repaired after the 1935 fire or when it was demolished, but by 1940 the Elks Lodge had relocated to 601 Union Street.
Gossips Note: Thanks to Raymond Clapper who asked the questions and supplied most of the answers that make up this post, and to John Craig for providing the rest of the information.
Gossips Correction: The two Hudson River Bank buildings did not stand in the spot that is now Thurston Park. This is the building that stood in that space.
The site of the Hudson River Bank is now occupied by this building.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The Suffragettes Spend Christmas in Hudson
This account of the suffragettes' Christmas stopover in Hudson appeared in the New York Press on Thursday morning, December 26, 1912.
ROMANCE THRILLS SUFFRAGETTES ON MARCH TO ALBANY
Griffith Bonner Wins Gladys Coursen's Promise to Become His Bride.
ANOTHER SUITOR IS LEFT FAR BEHIND
Christmas Is Spent in Hudson in Skating Party and Charity Ball.
HUDSON, N. Y., Dec. 25--General Rosalie Jones and her suffragette "army" that is hiking to Albany, to-day were thrilled with the announcement that one of their member, Gladys Coursen, is to become a bride of Griffeth [sic] Bonner, a volunteer in the cause.
Miss Coursen is a Vassar graduate. Bonner finds time apart from his cotillon [sic] calls in Poughkeepsie and New York to work for the ballot for women. He devotes some of his time to the Men's League of Poughkeepsie and works for a newspaper in the same city.
The engagement was made known when Miss Coursen began to wear the fraternity pin of Bonner, even more conspicuously than the "Votes for Women" badge. Bonner supplied the answer. He said:
"We are engaged--that is, I believe we are; but there is a slight string to it. Miss Coursen has put me on a three months' probation. She wants to be sure I will devote my entire time to her, as is natural. My social duties, of course, have made it necessary for me to have many young woman friends. But I intend to show her I can be true."
The social duties he refers to compel his weekly appearances at dances in Sherry's, Delmonico's and other places where the younger set stage their festivities.
The marchers to-night attended the charity ball held for the benefit of the Hudson Hospital. The ball was under the auspices of three of the local social leaders, Cornelia Andrews, Gretchen Longley, her niece, and Mrs. J. Y. Hogeboon. All three are survivors of the Titanic disaster.
Bonner is the grandson of Robert Bonner, who made a fortune in the publication of the New York Ledger and who owned Maud S. and other famous horses. The father of Griffith Bonner is wealthy and was a classmate of Alfred Chester Coursen, father of Miss Coursen. Both parents were graduated from Princeton in 1876. Their children have been chums since childhood. Griffith Bonner's father is a director in a dozen or more corporations, the most important being the Pennsylvania Cement Company and the McKinnon Steel Works.
Bonner Follows "Army."
For years Bonner has begged Miss Coursen to become his wife. When she became interested in the suffrage movement he organized the Men's League. When she decided to join the "army" he went with her. When they started from Poughkeepsie another suitor, Pelton Cannon, walked on the other side of Miss Coursen and tried to dissuade her from attempting to make the trip.
The "army" of General Jones had come prepared to make a big showing. For three weeks the General has had trunks in this city with costumes for to-night's ball. The marchers appeared as spirits.
General Jones represented the "spirit of Abigail Adams," wife of the President, who urged him "not to forget the ladies, John, because some day they will arise in their might," when he went away to help frame the Constitution. She wore a costume of pink and blue, a blue satin petticoat under a polonaise and looped panniers of flowered pink silk. Her shoes were of black velvet with buckles.
Major Katherine T. Stiles wore a costume of black velvet and lace, with high-heeled shoes of black velvet, and widely draped panniers. She represented the "spirit of Mercy Warren," also of 1776. Colonel Ida Craft was "the spirit of Lucretia Mott," of 1848. Her gown was of garnet velvet, with which she wore a Quaker cap.
First Suffragette
"The Spirit of Margaret Brent," of 1647, was represented by Lieutenant-Colonel Jessie Hardy Stubbs, who came on from New York for the event. For the benefit of those who knew nothing of Margaret Brent, it was explained that she was the original American Suffragette. As the heiress of Lord Calvert and Lord Baltimore, she once went before the Maryland Assembly and demanded two votes in their name. She also kept the Assembly worrying all of one night, before it decided to deny her the right to vote.
Gladys Coursen represented the "Spirit of 1912," being her own natural self. About her neck was a placard enumerating the ten States that have given the franchise to women.
One of the worst hardships of the journey was encountered by the "spirits" on arriving at the ball. It was especially hard on Lieutenant Colonel Stubbs, who, as the heavy artillery of the trip, had missed no opportunity to make a speech. They were told they were to be seen and not heard for one hour. It was a hard command, but not one broke her silence. After the hour was over the "spirits" left the hall. Then they returned and danced.
General Jones admitted that she has worked her feet hard to-day, for the dancing was not the first of her athletics. For more than an hour she was busy in the skating rink here this afternoon. She made a suffrage speech.
She and Colonel Craft each made one in the same rink at 11 o'clock this morning to representatives of the Hudson suffragette organization.
Presents Distributed
This afternoon the General gave a tea to her army and camp followers. There were a Christmas tree and gifts for each, presented by Colonel Craft. Only little "Doc" Dock was absent. She has been in bed all day, resting for the hike to-morrow. Then the war correspondents made their gift, a copy of "Pilgrim's Progress," in which each marcher and each war correspondent had written his or her sentiments regarding the journey. Some of these read:
"Where are you going, my pretty maid?
I'm going a-suffering, sir, she said.
May I go with you, my pretty maid?
If you carry the baggage, sir, she said.
"Theirs not to reason why. Theirs but to tramp or die, the noble six hikers."
Such useful gifts as cold cream, foot powder, foot soap and water pails also decorated the tree.
Early to-morrow the hikers will start for Stockport, where they will spend the night. The itinerary now has been completed. On Friday night they will be at Schodack Centre. The last night before reaching Albany will be spent at Rensselaer.
Accompanying them from here tomorrow will be a delegation of Hudson Suffragettes, prominent along them: Mrs. Luella D. Smith, president of the local W. C. T. U.; Mrs. C. B. Snyder, of the D. A. R. and prominent club woman of this city, and Sallie Stupplebeen and Eloise Payne.
The following excerpts are from an article that appeared in the afternoon of Thursday, December 26, 1912, in the Hudson Evening Register.
WALKERS HAD A CHRISTMAS TREE
Suffragists Spent Pleasant Christmas Here.
ARE NOW AT STOCKPORT
Where They Will Stay Until Tomorrow Morning.
The Suffragettes, who marched into Hudson Tuesday evening, and who spent a most merry Christmas here, left The Worth at 9:20 this morning, resuming their on-to-Albany hike. . . .
Manager Stupplebeen opened his rink for the Suffragettes to hold a meeting, and a meeting was held there in the afternoon. General Jones put on the rollers and had a Christmas skate before addressing the meeting. There were a number of people present who seemed considerably interested in the cause.
When the meeting was over the Suffragettes repaired to The Worth, and there a Christmas tree was awaiting them. Proprietor H. C. Miller had given over his private office for the occasion and here the room was decorated in holly and other Christmas greens, while Christmas bells and ornaments were suspended from the ceiling and intertwined from corner to corner. The Christmas tree was just loaded down with gifts and presents. . . .
A pink tea was given, and the parlor adjoining the room in which stood the tree was thrown open as well as the large public parlor which connects it. Many Hudson well wishers of the cause were present in these rooms. Though away from home and loved ones, the army had a Christmas tree all to itself at the hotel and after singing several songs they distributed presents from a real Christmas tree, with Col. Craft acting as Santa Claus.
The party that stopped at The Worth was made up of Gen. Rosalie Jones, Col. Ida Craft, Surgeon-General Lavinia L. Dock, Alice Clark, Gladys Coursen, Sibyl Wilbur, suffragist and reporter, Jessie Hardy Stubbs, A. Major, of Major's cement, and Edward Van Wyck, of commissary department and traveling by auto; M. A. Stiles, of Associated Press, and his wife, a suffragist; Virginia Hudson of New York Press; Emma Ragbee, New York Tribune; Gertrude A. Marvin, New York Sun; Henry Parker, the New York Journal; J. O. Smith, New York World; H. Percy Soule, New York Times; William Conley, New York Globe; Martin Casey, Brooklyn Eagle; Griffith Bonner, Poughkeepsie Star.
Mrs. Luella Smith, president of the local W. C. T. U. and Mrs. C. E. Snyder, President of the local D. A. R. extended greetings to the band, and this morning when the Suffragists started out, they were accompanied by Miss Eloise Payne, Miss Laura Atwood and the Misses Stupplebeen, all of this city.
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